Leave
by butimbroken
Summary: Buffy/Angelus AU. He destroyed their relationship then punished her for it. COMPLETE.


After five and a half years in the perfect relationship everything had just fallen to pieces around them. It seemed almost as if it'd happened overnight, too... one minute they were happy and the next everything was a mess. Buffy was trying to put the pieces together, she was working on giving things some space before trying to figure out what to do next, where to go from there.

Apparently, that didn't sit well with Angelus, though. At first, he had tried to win her back, saying the mistakes that had been made were nothing, that they could just pick back up, that somehow they could act as though nothing had happened. She couldn't just up and do that though and he didn't understand.

_It's Unnerving, How Just One Move Puts Me By Myself_

He started turning cold when she wouldn't agree to just getting back together as though nothing was wrong, pushing away, being cruel.

Punishing her almost.

He was the one who had hurt her but was acting like the victim in it all.

_There You Go, Just Trusting Someone Else_

It was hardly over two weeks since they had split when he told her he was moving on and tired of waiting for her to get over it. He forewarned her that he was taking a trip in a few days to meet someone, to go on without her. She felt panicked like somehow she had some strange feeling in the pit of her stomach that made her know something was going to happen if he went. Something big.

She tried to stop him, even to work it out in her panic, but he wasn't listening. She begged and pleaded, but then he left, drove the miles and met his new lady.

Adding insult to injury, he continued his rein of cruelty. He had her call him from his phone to tell her all about the time they were having together. After crying herself to sleep that night, she woke up to texts for her telling all the intimate details of their night together. He called her later to tell her that they were on their way back to his hometown, bringing her there to meet his family, spend the holidays with her. Something he had never even had her do.

Five and a half years together and she'd never had a holiday with him, never met a single person in his family. But sure, not even one day with her and he was bringing her home.

_I'm Not Saying, There Was Nothing Wrong_

_I Just Didn't Think You'd Ever Get Tired Of Me_

Buffy was heartbroken, depressed. She was angry.

After one last turn at yelling at him and telling him he was an idiot, she cut off contact with him, wanting nothing more to do with him at the time. He wanted to play games then he was free to... but she wasn't having any part of it.

If he had any brains in that head of his, he'd come to his senses she'd though.

Silence fell between them for the next fifteen days. She was numb as she went through her day to day but tried her best to ignore it. She'd been at home, crying, moping... but finally she had allowed one of her friends from work drag her out for the night.

She'd even been having a nice time.

But then... her phone vibrated and she looked to see a message from him. And her heart stopped. He told her to congratulate her, he was now engaged.

The world started to spin.

_It's Aggravating, How You Threw Me On And You Tore Me Out_

Sixteen days after even meeting her, and he was engaged. Buffy couldn't believe it. She even found out he had used her ring they'd picked out together to give to this girl, proposing on _their_ lighthouse. And in order for him to do that, he'd had to take her on an out of state trip. Again, moving really quickly with the steps of a relationship.

'Who the hell does these things?' she wondered.

_But If That's How It's Gonna Leave, Straight Out From Underneath_

_Then We'll See Who's Sorry Now_

_If That's How It's Gonna Stand, When You Know You've Been Depending On_

_The One You're Leaving Now, The One You're Leaving Out_

After raging to the moon and back, again Buffy cut contact with her ex, unable to deal with him any longer. She didn't want to know any more about what he was doing, couldn't handle it. He was leaving her behind like they hadn't mattered at all when all she wanted was some time to work on their problems.

Angelus told her that their lucky day was going to be on next year's Halloween. She only hoped he'd stop being an airhead by then. She warned him of the mistakes he was making, yelled and cried, but then walked away when nothing else worked.

She was growing more and more depressed, and angry. She couldn't believe how he was behaving. How he had gone from being one person, to another. Her life started crumbling around her. She started pushing people away, becoming closed off. She stopped going out, returning phone calls. She quit going to work until the finally fired her, hell she pretty much stopped leaving her apartment.

Laying in bed, crying her eyes out seemed like a better option.

OoOoO

It was three and a half months later when Darla - Angelus' replacement for her, - found a new way to contact her as all the others were taken away as she wanted space from the two of them. But there she was. And telling her the news. Angelus and her had married. The day before.

'There went the end of October. It was the middle of April.'

The two of them had known each other for a day past four months when they married. Buffy and him had been split up just two and a half weeks longer than that. It was unthinkable.

But it had happened. She found proof, plus Darla's message had prompted her to break her silence with him. He confirmed it, but threw her off all the more by telling her he still was in love with her and wished he was with her. A day after saying "I Do" he was already saying he regretted it.

In an act of stupidity and panic, she begged him to leave, to not do this, to give them another try. But he said it was too late. He loved her, would always... he was sorry for how things had gone... but he moved on, he was married now. They could never be again.

OoOoO

That should have been enough, more than enough even, for her to cut ties... for good. But the stupidity continued for months before that finally happened.

He would confess his love to her in letters, e-mails, text messages. She would even send them on to his wife, who was now joining in on conversations to her, just frustrating her more.

But it all got to be too much.

Buffy knew it was over. Apparently this Darla person had to be quite amazing, right. And she had no ground to stand on here.

Buffy said everything she felt she needed to say. She told him her anger, her hurt. She told him her feelings of love. She warned him of the mistake he made and how one day he was going to see it. And then she severed ties, letting him go about his new life.

The End.


End file.
